The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 9

Even as Elena opened her mouth to speak, she could feel herself lifted as if in a hurricane. For a moment she clung to the boy who was being torn from her grasp, whence she just had m to shout, Ill be back, and to hear his reply, before she was pulled into the median(a) world of baths and humannessipulation and motel rooms.Ill keep our secret That was what the little boy had cried to her at the last moment.And what could that mean unless that he would keep their rendezvous from the real (or ordinairy) Damon?A moment later Elena was standing in a dingy motel room, and Damon was clutching her upper arms. As he released her, Elena could taste salt. Tears were flowing freely d receive her cheeks.It didnt await to make any dispute to her attacker. Damon seemed to be at the mercy of raw desperation. He was shaking like a little boy the first time he kissed his first love. Thats whats driving the control away, Elena thought fuzzily.As for herself, she felt as if she might faint. none She had to stay conscious.Elena pushed and twisted, hurting herself deliberately against the apparently splinterproof grip that held her.It held.The possessor? Shinichi again, sneaking into Damons mind and making him do things ?Elena fought harder, pushed herself until she actu solelyy could hold back screamed with pain. She whimpered once The hold stone-broke.Somehow Elena knew that Shinichi wasnt involved in this. The true in sound outect of Damon was a little boy held in chains for God-knew-how-many centuries, who had never known warmth and fill upness but who subdued had a tearful appreciation for them. The nipper who was arrange to the rock surrounding was one of Damons deepest secrets.And now Elena was trembling so hard she wasnt sure she could stand up, and she was wondering just about the child. Was he cold? Was he crying like Elena? How could she tell?She and Damon were left staring at each other, both breathing hard. Damons sleek hair was mussed, making him loo k rakish as a buccaneer. His face, unendingly so pale and self-composed, was flushed with blood. His look dropped to watch Elena automatic anyy massaging her wrists. She could feel pins and needles now she was getting back some circulation. Once hed looked away, he couldnt seem to look her in the eye again.Eye contact. All right. Elena recognized a weapon, groping for a chair and finding the bed unexpectedly blotto behind her. She didnt fox many weapons right now and she needed to use all of them.She sit down, giving in to the weakness in her body, but she kept her eyes on Damons face. His mouth was swollen. And that wasunfair. Damons pout was a part of his most basic artillery. He had always had the most beautiful mouth shed ever seen on anyone, man or woman. The mouth, the hair, the half-drooping lids, the heavy lashes, the delicacy of his jawlineunfair, even to someone like Elena, whod yen ago gotten past interest in a person because of some separatrix of beauty. neverthel ess shed never seen that mouth swollen, the perfect hair disordered, the eyelashes trembling because he was looking everywhere except at her and trying not to show it.Was that what youve been thought process about while youve been refusing to talk to me? she asked, and her voice was almost steady.Damons sudden windlessness was perfection like all his other perfections. No breathing, of course. He stared at a spot in the beige carpet that by rights ought to have broken into flames.Then, finally, he lifted those huge dark eyes to hers. It was so hard to tell anything about Damons eyes because the iris was almost the same color as the pupil, but Elena had a feeling that at this moment they were dilated so far as to be all pupil. How could eyes as dark as mid nighttime trap and hold light? She seemed to see in them a universe of stars.Damon tell, softly, Run.Elena felt her legs tense. Shinichi?No. You should run now.Elena felt her thigh muscles relax slightly and was grateful not to have to try to prove that she could run or even crawl at this exact instant. But her fists clenched.You mean this is just you being a bastard? she said. Have you decided to hate me again? Did you enjoy ?Damon whirled again, stillness into motion double-quick than her eyes could track it. He hit the frame of the window, once, pulling the punch almost completely at the last instant. There was a crash and then a thousand little echoes as the glass showered like diamonds against the darkness outside.That mightbring some people to help you. Damon wasnt trying to make the haggle seem more than than an afterthought. Now that he was turned away from her, he didnt seem to care about keeping up appearances. Fine tremors ran through his body.This late, in this storm, this far away from the office I doubt it. Elenas body was catching up with the adrenaline spurt that had allowed her to fight her way out of Damons grip. She was tingling all over and she had to work to keep it from turning into outright shaking.And they were back to square one, with Damon staring into the night and her staring at his back. Or, at least, that was where he wanted them to be.You could have just asked, she said. She didnt know if this was possible for a vampire to understand. She still hadnt taught Stefan. He went without things that he wanted because he didnt understand about asking. In all white and with all good intentions, Stefan left things until she, Elena, was forced to ask him.Damon, she thought, didnt usually have that problem. He took whatever he wanted as casually as if plectrum items off of a grocery store shelf.And right now he was express mirth silently, which meant that he was truly stricken.Ill take that as an apology, Elena said softly.Now Damon was laughing out loud, and Elena felt a chill. Here she was, trying to help him, and Do you think, he broke into her thoughts, that that was all I wanted? Elena felt herself freeze again as she mulled this over. Damon could ea sily have taken her blood while he held her immobile. But of course that wasnt all he wanted from her. Her aurashe knew what it did to vampires. Damon had been protecting her all a foresightful from other vampires who might see it.The difference, Elenas native honesty told her, was that she didnt give a damn about any of the others. But Damon was different. When he kissed her she could feel the difference inside her. Something she had never felt beforeuntil Stefan.Oh, God was this really her, Elena Gilbert, betraying Stefan by the simple act of not running away from this situation? Damon was being a better person than she was he was telling her to take the temptation of her aura away from him.So that she could start the torture anew tomorrow.Elena had been in many component part where shed judged that it was best for her to leave before things got too hot. The problem here was that there was nowhere that she could go to without turning up the heat putting herself in greater dan ger. And, incidentally, losing her chance to find Stefan.Should she have gone with Matt? But Damon had said they couldnt get into this Dark Dimension place, not two humans by themselves. Hed said they needed him with them. And Elena still had some doubts as to whether Damon would take the trouble to even drive to Arizona, much less search for Stefan, if she wasnt with him every step of the way.Besides, how could Matt have protected her on the dangerous road she and Damon were following? Elena knew that Matt would die for her and thats just what he would do, too, if they came up against vampires or werewolves. Die. Leaving Elena facing her enemies alone.Oh, yes, Elena knew what Damon did each night when she slept in the car. He put some kind of dark spells around her, signing them with his name, sealing them with his seal, and they kept random creatures of the night away from the car until morning.But their greatest enemies, the kitsune twins, Shinichi and Misao, they had brought wi th them.Elena thought about all this before raising her head to look Damon in the eyes. Eyes which, at that moment, reminded her of those of a ragged child chained to a rock.Youre not going to leave, are you? he whispered.Elena shook her head.Youre really not afraid of me?Oh, Im afraid. Again Elena felt that inward shiver. But she was flying someplace now, she had set the course, and there was no way that she could stop. Especially not when he looked at her like that. It reminded her of the fierce joy, the almost reluctant pride he always showed when they took down an enemy together.I wont become your Princess of Darkness, she told him. And you know that I could never give up Stefan.A ghost of his old mocking smile affected his lips. Theres plenty of time to convince you to my way of thinking on those matters.No need, Elena thought. She knew that Stefan would understand.But even now, when it seemed the whole world was whirling around her, something rose up in Elena to challenge Dam on. You say its not Shinichi. I call back you. But is all this because of what Caroline said? She could hear the sudden hardness in her own voice.Caroline? Damon blinked as if thrown off his stride.She said that before I met Stefan I was just a Elena found it impossible to get the last articulate out. That I waspromiscuous.Damons jaw hardened and his cheeks flushed quickly as if hedbeen struck from an unexpected direction. That girl, he muttered.Shes already fixed her destiny and if it were anyone else I might beinclined to take some pity. But shegoesbeyondshesbeyondany propriety As he spoke his words slowed, and a look of perplexity clouded his face. He was gazing at Elena and she knew he could see the tears standing in her eyes, because he reached up to brush them away with his fingers. As he did, however, he stopped dead in midmotion, and, his face suddenly bemused, he brought one of his hands up to his lips, tasting her tears.Whatever they tasted like to him, he didnt see m to believe it. He brought the other hand up to his lips as well. Elena was openly staring at him now he should have been put out of countenance but he wasnt. Instead a kaleidoscope of expressions passed over his face, too quickly for her human eyes to catch them all. But she did see astonishment, disbelief, bitterness, more astonishment, and then finally a kind of joyful shock and a look almost as if there were tears in his own eyes.And then Damon laughed. It was a quick, self-mocking laugh, but it was genuine, euphoric, even.Damon, Elena said, still blinking back tears it had all happened that fast what is wrong with you?Nothings wrong, everythings right, he said, while raising a scholarly finger. You should never try to fool a vampire, Elena. Vampires have many senses humans dont and some we dont even know we have until we need them. Its taken me long enough to realize what I know about you. Because, of course, everyone was telling me one thing, and my own mind was telling m e something else. But Ive figured it out, at last. I know what you really are, Elena.For half a minute Elena sat in shocked silence. If you do, then I might as well tell you right now that no one will believe you. peradventure not, Damon said, especially if theyre human. But vampires are programmed to recognize the aura of a maiden. And you are unicorn-bait, Elena. I dont know or care how you got your reputation. I was fooled by it myself for a long time, but Ive finally found the truth. Suddenly he was bending over her so that she could see nothing but him, his fine hair brushing her forehead, his lips close to hers, his dark eyes, fathomless, capturing her gaze.Elena, he whispered. This is your secret. I dont know how youve managed it, butyoure a virgin.He leaned in toward her, his lips just brushing hers, sharing his deliberate breaths with hers. They stayed like that for a long, long time, Damon seeming enthralled to be able to give Elena something from his own body the oxygen t hat both she and he needed, but acquired in different ways. For many humans, the stillness of their bodies, the silence, and the sustained eye contact, for neither of them had shut their eyes, might have been too much. It might have felt as if they had plunged themselves into their partners personalities too far, that they were losing definition and becoming an gay part of each other before one kiss had even been completed.But Elena was floating on air on the breath that Damon gave her and in the factual sense. If Damons strong, long, slender hands had not held her shoulders, she would have escaped his grip entirely.Elena knew that there was another way that he could keep her down. He could Influence her to let graveness have its way with her. But so far, she had felt not the slightest touch of attempted Influence. It was as if he still wanted to give her the honor of choice. He would not seduce her by any of his many accustomed methods, the tricks of domination learned over hal f a millennium of nights.Only the breathing, which was coming more and more quickly, as Elena felt her senses begin to swim and her heart began to pound. Was she truly sure that Stefan wouldnt mind this? But Stefan had given her the greatest honor possible by trusting in her love and her judgment. And she was beginning to feel Damons true self, his overwhelming need for her his vulnerability because that need was becoming like an obsession to him.Without attempting to Influence her, he was still spreading great soft dark wings all around her so that there was nowhere to run, nowhere to escape. Elena felt herself begin to pop off with the intensity of the passion they had wrought between them. As a final gesture, not of repudiation, but of invitation, she arched her head back, exposing to him her bare throat, and let him feel her longing.And as if great, crystal bells were ringing in the distance, she felt his jubilation at her voluntary surrender to the velvet darkness that was ove rtaking her.She never felt the teeth that broke her skin and claimed her blood. Before that happened she was seeing stars. And then the universe was swallowed up in Damons dark eyes.